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a GOOD weekend

Hey babes! Welcome to my first weekend recap.. something I’ve never done before but last weekend needed one!

I traveled to Philly with my best friend (Hi Mikki) for GOOD fest – Basically a day full of all things health and wellness, my fav!

If you know me, you know that there’s nothing I love more than EXPLORING and adventures, so I was super excited to be a foodie tourist (is that a thing?!) in Philly.

After a 6 hour drive, Mikki and I got to our air bnb around 2 pm on Friday. We got ready, met up with Julia from @lifethroughjulia (Yay for finally meeting insta friends in real life!) and headed to Whole foods – would you expect anything else?!?!

We walked around Rittenhouse square and found P.S & Co where Mikki and Julia got the BEST black bean brownie ever and I got some grain free banana bread that was delish!

Next stop was Fishtown, where we were meeting some more insta friends (Jess from @youngandhangry and Emily from @emilyzygmunt) for a foodie dinner at Front Street Café (another one on my list). After literally 30 mins of drooling over the amazing menu and debating on what we wanted, we finally ordered. To start, we got the garlic siracha cauliflower wings. They were like chicken wings..but like, not. They were so crispy and delicious and omg I want them right now.

Anyways, I ordered the lentil meatballs with spaghetti squash and was in HEAVEN. I need to figure out a recipe for the meatballs because I have been craving them ever since. For dessert, our lovely waiter brought us a complimentary raw vanilla cheesecake. It had a date/almond crust, fresh berries, and was drizzled in chocolate sauce. AMAZING – and another recipe I need to figure out asap! We also ordered the double chocolate avocado cookies which came warm with marshmallow and chocolate sauce.

The whole meal was drool worthy and a week later I’m still thinking of it.. BUT other than the food, the company was amazing. It was so nice to sit down to a wholesome meal with a group of girls that just get it. It was so nice to talk “foodie” and health and feel understood! These girls are amazing, and I feel so lucky and blessed that Instagram brought me to them.

ALSO, as I am writing this I am literally just realizing that I had banana bread and then STILL ate dessert. I didn’t even think twice about it while I was there. I had totally forgotten about the banana bread! A few months ago, I would’ve freaked out and only “let myself” have one or the other.. yay for progress towards food freedom!

Saturday morning Mikki and I woke up early, and headed back to Front Street Café (lol, can you tell we liked it?) for breakfast and coffee. I got the best damn omelet I’ve ever had and she got a beautiful acai bowl. YUM!

Next stop.. THE GOOD FEST!

The day started with pilates and then yoga led by THE Jordan Younger aka @thebalancedblonde. I’m not a yogi by any means, I actually don’t enjoy yoga, but I enjoyed it this day (even if my back is still in excruciating pain a week later).

The day was full of strong, inspiring women speaking, a market place full of all the goods (vital proteins, REBBL, Healthade..) delicious lunch from snap kitchen, and a swag bag fullla tons of goods.

I was surrounded by over 200 women who shared the same passion as me, who got it. I always feel alone in my interests, because no one around me shares them, but this GOOD fest brought me to so many amazing girls who love health and wellness just as much as me. I have never felt so overwhelmed – in both a positive and negative way. I could’ve gone up to any of the ladies in the room and talked about kombucha or collagen peptides and they would’ve actually known what I was talking about!!! (lol)

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BUT I’m going to be real honest here for a minute, although it was amazing to know that I was surrounded by like minded individuals, I kind of felt out of place. Weird right? I think it was just my social anxiety, but I felt that I didn’t belong. I felt like I was kind of a nobody in this “foodie” world and that I was unimportant. I felt like the people there didn’t actually like me. I’m not blaming this on the people there – my social anxiety just got the best of me. I was kind of beating myself up. I have these phases where I just can’t stop the negative self talk, cant stop thinking that I don’t matter to the people around me. There were periods throughout the day where I was able to calm my thoughts down, and realized how blessed I was to be there. Of course I know that I was lucky to be surrounded by the 200+ women, and looking back I wish I was able to just chill out and not let myself think the way I was, but its just something I have to work on (there will be another post on this soon). I guess that day just wasn’t 100% what I was expecting. But don’t get me wrong, there was a lot of good to the day,

The people, the food, the environment, I was anxious, BUT I felt grateful to be a part of such a supportive community. It kind of didn’t feel real that all of those people think of health like I do…amazing!!

Anyways, the day came to a bittersweet end. I had mixed feelings reflecting on it. I met some amazing people like I said, but for me – something was off. Social anxiety kills ya sometimes. SO, Mikki and I headed to dinner at P.S & Co. She got a beet burger with fries (so good) and I got the most delicious taco salad ever. After dinner, we walked to Hip City Veg where we got banana whip – aka soft serve ice cream made 100% from bananas.

Sunday was spent exploring some more and enjoying the sunshine. Mikki and I got the most amazing breakfast at Bluestone Lane – avocado toast with olive oil, tomatoes, and a poached egg. Then we walked around some more before the 6 hour drive back. I got a matcha latte at Front Street Café (my fav food spot of the trip) and we headed home!

To reflect on this trip – it was just what I needed. I needed a new adventure. I needed to surround myself with like minded people. I needed to let myself enjoy ALL the food without thinking twice about calories or macronutrients or anything like that. I needed to take spend the weekend with my best friend. Yes, my social anxiety acted up, but thats OKAY! I ate out for every meal from dinner on Friday, to Breakfast on Sunday. To some people, that may sound like nothing. But, for me.. its HUGE. A year ago, heck.. a month or two ago, I could not have done this. I’m going to bed honest, the days leading to the trip I was a little freaked out by all the eating out I’d be doing, but I did not let myself stress over it like I would have in the past. Instead of thinking about all of the food and fearing it, I actually made a list of places I WANTED to go eat. Like, places I saw online and drooled over, instead of crying over!!! Boy how times have changed. I do still struggle. I struggle every day. But finding this passion for health and wellness and fueling my body with real, wholesome foods, has pushed me further into recovery than I ever thought I would be. I am not fully recovered, I have a long way to go, but this trip was a huge step for me. I didn’t spend time thinking about “oh I already ate ____ which means I cant have ____ later”. I just ate. I listened to my body and ate whenever I was hungry. I didn’t think about the carbs or the calories or the oil my food was being cooked in – well, there were moments when stuff like that crossed my mind, but it was just a thought that left my head moments after, without letting them impact my food decisions. I spent the weekend showing my best friend what I love, which made my heart SO happy. I’m always worried that people around me think my passion is “weird” but it was so nice to show her my “foodie” ways 🙂 A weekend spent with my best friend, exploring a new city, eating amazing food, and meeting amazing people. What more could I ask for? I didn’t restrict before or make myself exercise or “Save up” calories. I just went with what I was truly craving and what I truly wanted. What an amazing feeling. And what an amazing weekend, thanks to all the babes that made it so good.

As always, thanks for reading. And I’d appreciate ANY feedback you might have 🙂